Introducing Anna Chase & Jane Hagenauer

Introducing Presenter Shawndra Miller

Introducing Presenter Darren Chittick

Here is both a video of and an article by Darren Chittick





There is something about a tomato ripened on the vine, still warm from the sun with a dash of salt and a little cilantro that pleases the palate more than the most complex of French dishes. In Indiana, tomatoes are a summer staple. Local grocery stores are still stocking round, red fruits from Mexico, Canada and California instead of the heirloom goodness local farmers have to offer. Add to that the travel time that those little darlings were picked green and then forced, under duress, to ripen in a truck or airplane, and it’s a wonder they even survive! And that is only the tomatoes!

This understanding has led many to local farmers markets. While this is a great solution, why not plant a garden, too! The very idea of gardening is immediately intimidating to some. It seems to mean a lot of work for a little return. That is because the word gardening is attached to a mental imagining that isn’t always realistic. Many nuvo, urban homesteaders are realizing that gardening can mean a lot of things and can fit any schedule.

The garden of yesteryear, long rows in big plots, is not as applicable to urban life. For the city-dweller, the possibilities are still vast. Vertical gardening, raised beds, and container gardens are just a few possibilities for fresh, organic produce grown at home. These can support something as simple as a salsa garden on the patio to an entire feast of vegetables and fruits from the yard.

Even if you haven’t had a garden all year, mums aren’t the only thing to get into the ground as the weather cools. It’s time to plant garlic that will be harvested next year. It’s still great weather for lettuces, cabbages, broccoli and spinach. Many greens and root veggies, in fact, prefer cooler weather. It’s not too late to consider getting some wholesome food into the ground

The MBA Recruiter Learns to Farm

by guest blogger Tyler Henderson, co-owner of Big City Farms, SkillShare "Feast"ival rainbarrel presenter

In addition to farming, I have a completely different profession. I am the Director of Operations for North and South America for the Bocconi University School of Management in Milan, Italy. Laura (my wife) and I lived in Europe from 2004-2006 where I completed a master’s program in higher education policy and upon completing that program, I took a job in Milan that required I live somewhere in North or South America (wouldn’t you choose Indy if you could live anywhere in this hemisphere!).

I am responsible for student recruitment for two international MBA programs requiring that I travel for 10 weeks each fall and 4 weeks each spring. I am writing this from Shanghai and from here I will end up in Japan, Korea, Canada, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Turkey and Italy before returning to Indianapolis in November. I am not sure that I could have two professions that have a wider gap between localization and globalization. My hope in all this is that I am a better farmer because I am an MBA recruiter and vice versa.

I was reflecting on the summer these past few days, as I realized my summer has come to a quick end. I set out this summer with one goal that I verbally expressed to Matthew [Jose] and Laura while sharing a meal together last winter: learn how to run a small-scale, CSA-based, vegetable farm. I always want to farm with Matthew (let me say that again, always) but I thought if Matthew were to ever change his mind about farming, or move away from Indianapolis, I would still hope to run a farm. I am pleased (and somewhat surprised) to say that I think I met this goal. I had been no more than a hobby backyard gardener before this summer, so the amazingly sharp learning curve that was achieved is satisfying.

Vegetable farming has called on many capacities, both predicated and unpredicted. Of course, I realized there would be long hours, early mornings, hot days and exhausting work – those go with the territory. What I had not accounted for was the degree of planning, organization, networking and public relations. It has confirmed the point of Michael Pollan, Joel Salatin and others – we need farming to attract the best and brightest as a profession, as opposed to a profession chosen by folks who might not have other options. This will not happen until the chasm between the pay scale of farming and jobs like international recruitment is closed. It strikes me every time I think about the difference in money I earn in these two professions.

The world would be fine if every MBA recruiter stopped working tomorrow, but what about if every farmer quit tomorrow?

The summer has been full of big and small battles both won and lost. The wins of starting the first onion seeds in February, planting the first radishes March, building sturdy trellises in April, watching the crops take off in May, starting the CSA in June, getting a bumper crop of tomatoes in July and the magic of digging the first potatoes in August. The losses of sleep, crops to bind weed and the anguish of hoping for rain during the driest August on record.

But these tangible wins and losses are lessons that will be applied to next year, and the year after, until the wins get bigger and more satisfying and the losses get smaller and more humorous.

I cannot remember the last time I vocalized a specific goal and then met every ounce of that goal - I am afraid we do this too little as adults.

--excerpted from Tyler Henderson's letter to Big City Farms' Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) members. See Tyler discussing rainbarrels in this video created by Steven Shattuck.

AgroEcology Moment: Assassin Bugs and Preying Mantids

Photos and story by guest blogger Angela Herrmann, Master Gardener and Locavore

Many folks are squeamish around insects. Yes, I have been known to let out a little scream and jump when a cricket or a wolf spider jumps at me, much to the amusement of those who know me. In the gardening world, it seems that all insects are intent on ruining your garden. However, that is not the case. Our first instinct when confronted with lacy bean or squash leaves is to run to the garden or hardware store to buy an insecticide and douse the garden.

However, RESIST that urge! Why? When you kill the insects with “bad” behaviors, you’re also killing the good insects … like beneficial insects such as the assassin bugs and praying—or preying!—mantid. Without beneficials, we’re leaving a huge vacuum for even more hungry insect pests to invade and feast on what’s left of your beans and squash. A number of insects are our allies and they have voracious appetites. Have you seen the size of a praying mantid or an assassin bug? I have been fortunate to provide homes to these and others in my home garden.

In short, when we create a garden, our intent, besides bountiful harvests, is the creation of an ecosystem. Within that ecosystem, each plant, animal, and insect has a role. Anything that we can do to contribute to increasing beneficial insect habitat will increase the services they provide in helping you maintain control over hungry insect pests.

Despite it being so late in the season, the time to start is now. Know what kinds of insect pests are attracted to your fruit and vegetable plants. Then familiarize yourself with the various methods to control those pests. Those methods might include cultural controls (good soil quality, crop rotations, or companion plantings), physical controls (studying the potential pests so you can recognize them, removing them by hand with a soapy dish of water in the morning when they’re sluggish, and finding and destroying eggs), biological controls (the topic of this post, such as creating habitat for beneficial insects so they can do the work) and as an absolute last resort, chemical controls—but only through a system of integrated pest management (IPM).

Today I noticed a several clusters of squash bug eggs … so my task in the morning will be to remove them. That will mean less leaf damage later and fewer egg-laying adults in the future.

The bottom line: with some attention to your garden and a willingness to provide a more hands-on approach, you should not have to resort to pesticides. You’ll save money and enjoy organically-grown harvests.

To learn more about beneficial insects, check out these resources:

Ohio State University Extension

Mother Earth News

Purdue Extension's guide to insect pests and a few beneficials

--Angela Herrmann, a Master Gardener in Marion County, is just returning from a nine-week AgroEcology Summer Intensive 12-credit hour program at Goshen College.

Natural Magic

by guest blogger Dan Hess, Irvington resident and urban farmer

My family and friends have heard me say that my favorite day of the year is Thanksgiving Day and that my second to favorite day is when I harvest compost. Throughout that day I am in awe. I’ll share four elements of composting.

In the kitchen immediately by the sink is our stainless steel recycling bucket. Its lid has two separate filters which effectively keep all odors from escaping the bucket. We send practically nothing of food scraps down the drain.

Our compost pile is behind the garage, out of sight. It is surrounded on three sides by wire fencing. I like the open side for easy turning of the pile. In the photo I see tomatoes, grille ash, a newspaper, watermelon rind, egg shells, garden trimmings, a couple of corn cobs and I think several squash. I gather leaves from the neighbors in the fall, keeping a number of the bagfuls ready for topping the fresh stuff that’s thrown on the pile. I often throw garden dirt on top also, to discourage possums and raccoons.

In order to keep the pile heavily damp somewhat like a sponge, I use water from the barrel that receives rain from the garage roof. I turn the pile as often as I can in order to make it a hot pile, in contrast to the cold compost pile that is not turned.

Yesterday I harvested one wheelbarrow of mulch. I will likely lift about another three or four wheelbarrow loads today. I expect there will be a dozen to twenty loads in this year’s harvest. There is always a welcomed place for worm-intense compost throughout our property. Come October I’ll begin the pile for next year.

I am in awe of the transformation of refuse into rich resource, a transformation that leads my mind to think of our own spiritual renewals. That’s why I enjoy compost harvest so very much.

Got Local?

September 5-11 is GOING LOCAL Week for 2010. The goal of this non-centralized event is to get more local foods onto more local plates. We all know why this is important for our economy and our environment as well as for the taste of our meals. You can see the details of the event at the Going Local blog.

In our home, at least during the summer months, nearly all of the food that we eat is bought directly from the folks who produce it. Because we don't really eat grains, which you don't generally find at the farmers market, the only foods that we buy from the grocery store are olive oil, salt, pepper and seasonings for the most part. For us, "going local" has become "gone local" for a majority of the meals that we eat at home. So, when we were looking through the list of things to do I was getting a little arrogant about how great we were already doing. We even make an effort to share meals with others so that they might catch the 'local food bug' themselves.

As we looked further down the list, though, we saw a bullet point that could well have been underlined, in boldface, and blinking with a picture of us next to it marked "slackers!" We have talked about and talked about preserving food for winter this year and have done nothing other than this project, also from Going Local. This is our commitment for the week. Preserve something now so that we can skip a trip to the grocery this winter when the pickin's are slim.

If you are like us and are already fully on the band wagon for local eats, may we suggest that you dig deep and find a way to promote this movement. If this is a newer idea for you, do what you can and be proud for having made a concerted effort! As we were reminded in the movie Food, Inc., every dollar we spend on food is a vote for a particular approach to food production. Decide what's important to you and vote accordingly.